Prime Minister Andrew Holness is asking Jamaicans who own land they are not using to sell it to the Government for social housing, and the call is aimed at the diaspora as much as at people on the island. He made the appeal on Wednesday, October 21, during the handover of two-family housing units under the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP) in Greendale, Bull Bay, in St. Andrew East Rural, as reported by CANA News.

The appeal to landowners at home and abroad

Holness said access to suitable land remains a challenge for many Jamaicans who did not inherit property and are trying to secure a home, a gap that contributes to illegal land occupation, commonly known as squatting. “In my opinion, this is a good way to achieve social justice and equity,” he said. “There are many Jamaicans who had no endowment, meaning they have no asset that they would have gotten as an inheritance from their parents or their family, and they are seeking to have endowment.”

He called on landowners who have migrated or no longer intend to use their property to approach the Government about selling land suitable for housing, and said acquiring more usable land for the NSHP could ease social tensions tied to land settlement. Speaker of the House and Member of Parliament for St. Andrew East Rural, Juliet Holness, also appealed to Jamaicans at home and abroad who own suitable land to contact the Government.

Why land is the bottleneck

Under the programme’s current rules, a beneficiary must own land or have permission to use it under a long-term lease or other ownership arrangement before the Government builds a house for them. That means families who qualify on need can still be blocked by having nowhere to build.

Juliet Holness highlighted the difficulty of finding suitable sites in her constituency, pointing to the location of applicants, hilly terrain and a lack of land ownership among some prospective beneficiaries. Jamaica Homes News notes that unused serviced sites are the priority for the new appeal.

What has not been announced yet

Jamaica Homes News reported on October 23 that no asking price formula, acquisition budget, application portal or timetable has been announced, and that an expression of interest is not an accepted offer. The land problem itself is not new: officials named access to suitable sites as a major obstacle as far back as July 2025, when a review to provide land as well as houses was promised. Until the purchase terms are published, landowners who respond are starting a conversation, not signing a deal.

What happens next

The next step sits with the Government: publish how land will be valued, how owners apply, and how quickly purchases can close, so the appeal can turn into building sites. For Jamaicans overseas holding family land they do not plan to develop, this is the first time the social housing programme has asked for their land directly.

Source: CANA News, October 22, 2026, Jamaica Homes News, October 22, 2026, Jamaica Homes News, October 23, 2026